Seeing Light
The word “Solstice” has Latin origins, a combination of the words Sol, for Sun, and “Sistere” meaning “to stand still.” The combined meaning offers us “sun stands still.” This past Thursday, as a group of community members joined together for yoga and music on the Winter Solstice night, this is the image I reflected upon. Each of us coming to hold the light, contain it for a moment in time, together, honoring all the ways that each of us might shine light in the darkness of both the outer and the inner world of us all.
With the support of my brother and fellow yoga teachers, I’ve been offering this Winter Solstice community event since 2009. It began from the desire to offer support to a local family who had just lost nearly everything in an early December house fire. The event went on to become a yearly offering, both for the community members who were able to attend and practice yoga and meditation together, and for the people we were able to support by raising money.
The Winter Solstice also happens to be the birthday of Victoria Slater-Madert, my powerhouse friend who ran the local Children’s Home Society safe house (now renamed in her honor Victoria’s House Child Advocacy Center) for her entire adult career. She got children where they needed to be and got them away from places they didn’t need to be. She was literally doing God’s work. I like to imagine that the light of all that is good stood still within her, a steady flame of love in the world. Now we’ve been able, since her death last year, to come alongside the work she did and raise money both in her honor and for the honor of the beautiful children of West Virginia.
What I’ve realized is that Vic’s death doesn’t mean the light she embodied has disappeared. That same light shone in each of us as we came into the room together this past Thursday. And no matter how low the sun appears, I can find ways to move into that light that was shining amongst community, allow myself to stand still within it, over and over again.
This is what I sense us doing when we come together for night’s like this Winter Solstice event—standing still within the light of one another for a time. That’s a lovely image, I think. I imagine all of the movement of life that rushes us past one another, for a moment in time comes to steady itself, to stand still, so we might grow warmer and less alone alongside the light of our neighbor.
I began this month considering how hope and peace and joy might be found “in the land of the living,” alongside the scent of life exactly as it is. The aroma of life as it is has not been one I’ve wanted to breathe in on many moments of many days this past month. Yet, somehow I’ve still found ways to bump into the hope, joy, and peace that are the true gifts during this season of giving.
Hope for all that I can’t see beneath the surface of life, peace as I settle into my heart and my breath, joy in the absurd and in friendship and in the unexpected bubbling of laughter and connection.
Beneath the surface of the Winter Solstice is the seeming rebirth of light. Beneath the surface of our yoga event, is the hope of a roomful of humans who rest upon the flame of love that this event sparks in their heart, and the hope of children who might have safety for another day because of the work that Victoria began and so many others now continue. There is peace in that hope. And there is joy in the movement and laughter that flows between humans who present with each other for a time.
This is how I found myself this past week standing still inside some light, even as all the shadows of life danced around me. I suppose it was the shadows that allowed the light to feel even more apparent in that moment.
for a little boost in the morning, from a blessing by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie Today is new, oh God. The light is gathering and spilling onto everything. The sleeping and the sleepy. The trees brushing the window. Even the unwashed dishes know it's time. What a gift. Unopened. God, you know the obstacle course ahead. The intractability of most of my problems. The irritations I will need to smile through. The forgetfulness that will undo my best efforts. And the fights I will need to pick because someone really should. But bring me back to this moment. The gratitude that rises up within me lifts my eyes and settles my soul. Resurrection has happened again today...
There are many ways to find your way back to your heart and stand steady in your own good and true light. If you are a paid subscriber, I am including the final yoga practice of 2023 for you. I am deeply grateful for this community we are held in, friends.